1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an arrangement for the dispensing of cleaning and/or lubricating media, which can be placed under pressure in a receptacle, as maintenance media to movable elements containing medical, and particularly dental handpieces. The maintenance medium is forced by means of a pressure drive out of a dispensing orifice of the receptacle through an inlet opening of the handpiece which is attached to the receptacle at the dispensing orifice and whereby, during the forcing of the maintenance medium into the movable elements of the handpiece these are placeable into motion through a motion drive. The maintenance medium can be formed by liquid cleaning and/or lubricating media, for instance, such as oil. For example, a maintenance medium can be utilized as is set forth in German Laid-open Patent application No. 29 16 552.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
For the formation of the pressure drive, the receptacle containing the maintenance medium in such an arrangement can be placed under pressure, for example, pursuant to German Patent 561 205 through a hand air-blower, or in accordance with German Laid-open Patent Application No. 29 18 519 through a compressor or the like. The pressure drive can also be formed, pursuant to Swiss Pat. No. 535 575, through the internal pressure of a spray container which forms the receptacle and contains the maintenance medium and a drive medium. Finally, pursuant to the publication "Turboclean" of the company Scania Dental AB, the pressure drive can be formed, with the elimination of a separate receptacle containing the maintenance medium, through an air gun which dispenses compressed air through a mouthpiece, and which has its mouthpiece applied to the inlet opening of the handpiece which is previously filled with maintenance medium.
The arrangements which have become known from German Pat. No. 561 205, Swiss Pat. No. 535 575 and the publication "Turboclean", are subject to the common disadvantage in the lack of a motion drive for the movable components of the handpiece. Hereby, the moistening of particularly the movable handpiece components with the maintenance medium is incomplete or even rendered impossible, so that obtaining of the sought after maintenance effect is rendered doubtful.
For the formation of the motion drive which, for example, can be a reversing push-pull drive, for instance, for filing handpieces, or a rotary drive, for instance, for drilling or boring handpieces, in the case of a rotary drive in an arrangement of the above-mentioned type, the rotatable work tool drive shaft of the handpiece which is immersed in the receptacle containing the maintenance medium, pursuant to Swiss Pat. No. 259 955 can be set into rotation through a separate hand cam drive or, pursuant to the publication, "Kavo-Tauchol-und Reinigungsbesteck 2140", of the company Kaltenbach & Voigt, through the already currently present operating rotary drive of the handpiece. Finally, the motion drive pursuant to German Laid-open Patent Application No. 29 18 510 can be formed by a motor drive which is associated with the receptacle containing the maintenance medium, which drives a rotary follower arranged within the receptacle, which upon application of the inlet opening of the handpiece to the dispensing opening of the receptacle, can be brought into engagement with the rotatable work tool drive shaft of the handpiece. The arrangements which have become known from Swiss Pat. No. 259 955 and the publication "Kavo-Tauchol-und Reinigungsbesteck 2140" have the common disadvantage that, without considering a possibly relatively intensive moistening of particularly the movable handpiece components, the maintenance medium and the contaminants cannot be or at least not completely rinsed out of the handpiece, so that also in this instance there is rendered questionable the sought-after maintenance effect.
The motor drive which, in the arrangement pursuant to German Laid-open Patent Application No. 29 18 510 is provided as a rotary drive, for example, formed through a turbine wheel-like disk or an electromotor, should concurrently produce also the pressure drive; since in the case of a turbine wheel-like disk which is fixedly arranged on the shaft-like rotary follower, the pressurized drive air of the disk should flow past the latter, so as to force the maintenance medium downstream of the rotating disk out of the dispensing opening of the receptacle, whereas in the case of the electromotor there is provided, operating in conjunction with the shaft-like rotary follower by means of a threaded connection, a piston displaceable axially-parallel relative to the shaft which, for a rotating rotary follower, should force the maintenance medium downstream of the piston out of the dispensing orifice of the receptacle. Thus, for the rotary drive, in effect the motion drive, as well as for the pressure drive, there is thus provided a common power source, in essence, the motor drive which is supplied with compressed air or electric current. This has the result that, for example, in the case of the turbine wheel-like disk, there is required such a high use of air and in the case of the electromotor such a high use of current is required in order to set the disk or, respectively the motor into rotation and to concurrently force out the maintenance medium, that the operation of the known arrangement becomes uneconomical. Independently thereof, the pressure drive, in effect the forcing out of the maintenance medium, as well as the motion drive, in effect the rotation of the drive shaft of the handpiece, can be fully depleted since in the case of the disk there exists the danger that upstream of the disk, due to the small interspace between the disk rim and the receptacle wall, there will be produced too high a back pressure, whereas in the case of the electromotor there exists the danger that the threaded connection will bind between the piston and the shaft-like rotary follower. Finally, for the known arrangement, in the case of the turbine wheel-like disk, there is present the further danger that, in particular, hereby the rotary drive also will be rendered ineffective since the receptacle is provided with an exhaust air outlet opening only upstream of the disk but not downstream of the disk.